Why are there so many PhDs looking for jobs right now?
After World War II, demand for basic research grew exponentially in terms of grants from the federal government. The major research institutions grew their programs with the funding, implying an exponential growth in professorships and PhD students (who take classes for a couple of years, then support professors in their research). In the early 1970’s, federal funding growth tailed off into more regular percentage increases. While the growth in professorships eased to match funding, the growth in PhDs did not. This created a surplus in PhDs, which led to the question of what to do with these highly skilled scientists. So, the postdoc position was created. The numbers of postdocs have grown from 1,700 in 1971 (National Academy Of Science) to over 45,000 today (National Postdoc Association), and many bioscience postdocs often spend more time in this position than they would like.
